The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1887-07-21


cats, Maltese cats, brindle cats, tortoise-shell
cats, spotted cats, striped cats, brown cats,
yellow cats, mauve cats, gamboge cats; long
cats, short cats, tall cats, fat cats, lean cats,
stump-tailed cats, one-eared cats, wall-eyed
cats, three-legged cats, mamma cats, papa
iif fnd and and xSo fat An@ hsrs Of sS Ssy
were in Judge Tolls front yard among and
on the catnip bushes, purring, sprawling and
yowling like 90 many demons.
"Purr-r-r," said the old way.back Maltese
cat from Del Norte; ''purr-r-rl oh, isn't this
lovely2 It's the first catnip I've had in
going on twenty-five years-purr-r-rl 1
thank Heaven that have lived to see this
grateful fruit introduced into the Rocky
Mountain regionl''
And then all the other cats-there must
have been millions of them-purred in
chorus 80 loud that it sounded like an awful,
lingering peal of thunder.
But this was not all. Oh, mol By the
bright moonlight Judge Toll could see my
riads and myriads of other cats surging down
from the mountain ranges, and through the
fertile valleys and over the plains-from
Georgetown, Salida, Idaho Golden, Boulder,
Crested Butte, lineup, San Juan, Pueblo,
Cucharas, Buena VISTA Conejos, Durango,
Huerfano, Leadville, Kokoma, Manitou,
Monument, Ouray, Roeita, Saguache and
Trinidad-the foothills were alive with cats,
the mountain peaks swarmed with cats, and
cats cats, cats swept along like swirling
torrent toward one focal point-Judge Tolls
catnip bed.
And 10 the cats were coming from other
directions, too-from the arid plains of Kan.
sas, and from Deer Trail, from Monotony
water tank, and from the dreary confines of
Nebraska; the breeze blowing from the
water brought the noise of vast armies Of
cats on their way from Laramie and Chey-
ennei
The cats already in the garden-how
they purred and writhed and yowled, and
how the sparks of electricity shot from their
furry backs as they rubbed affectionately up
against the catnip busiest It was, in fact,
. carnival, saturnalia of cats.
The Judge said to himself: II will shoot
in among these trespassers and drive them
away. What right have they to devastate
my beauteous exotics ?"
But then came the second, better thought.
Would it not be cruel to deprive these
creatures Of the long-denied pleasure they
were now enjoying in the catnip bed9 None
of fthem-save the old Maltese-had ever be-
fore seen or tasted the precious herb; they
knew of 1t only from the Legendary lore with
which the old way-back Maltese had regaled
them, their mothers, their fathers, their
grandmother, their grandfathers, and 20 on
ad tHvlnttun. How II he (the judge were =
simple, impressionable mountain cat instead
of learned and dignifed judge; how if he
(being cat and having all q cats instructive
passion for catnip without ever having had q
chance to crafty that passion) were sud-
denly confronted with q garden running
over with this succulent fruit? Would he
not righteously considerit it q cruel injustice to
be driven remorselessly from an enjoyment
of the boon?
The more Judge Toll thought it over and
the more he made the cats place his own,
the more he became satisfied that he ought,
in all humanity, to let the cats stay and en-
| Joy the catnip. So at last he went back TO
| bed and renewed his slumber as best he
could.
When the Judge got up next morning and
looked out into his yard, not d cat was to be
seen, nor yet Q vestige of the catnip bushes,
either. The turf was widely rent and torn
up and every leaf, twig, sprig and root Of
catnip had disappeared. It was conjectured
that the cats took it all away with them.
They must have had terrible battle over
the remnants Of the feast, for here and there
on the furrowed and despoiled turf lay eyes
and ears and bits of tails and tufts of fur
silent but eloquent evidences of the last
tragic scene of all.